Diagnostic de nature des sténoses biliaires: rôle de la cytologie exfoliative par drainage biliaire externe

: The use of percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) has allowed the development of new diagnostic examinations, such as biliary exfoliative cytology. This is extremely important in patients with biliary tract strictures, in order to obtain a diagnosis about the real nature of the stricture. Forty-nine patients underwent exfoliative biliary tract cytology from bile samples. Exfoliative cytology was performed on bile samples taken at different times for each patient. The results of our study proved this examination to be highly specific (there were no false positive samples), although the diagnostic sensitivity was not as high (63.9%). It is important to underline that whenever the epithelium of the biliary tract is involved by neoplasm, the result of examination is always positive. These data may be useful to choose an appropriate surgical procedure.